All England Championships: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty Demolish Opponents in Just 19 Minutes

India’s top men’s doubles pair asserted their dominance on the first day of All England Championships on Wednesday with an absolutely crushing win over their first round opponents. The sixth seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had an easy game as they were up against the Indo-English pair of Aniruddha Mayekar and Nikhar Garg. But it was the manner in which the Indian pair thrashed their opponents was what took the cake. Satwik-Chirag demolished Mayekar-Garg in just 19 minutes with a scoreline of 21-7, 21-10.

In the first game of the match when Satwik-Chirag led 14-7, they went on a run of seven straight points to clinch the lead with ease.

The second game saw them register five straight points at the middle junction and twice they went on a run of four straight points, one of which they used to seal the match emphatically.

Satwik-Chirag will use all the conserved energy in their tough second round where they face the Danish pair of Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen. It was to this Danish pair that the Indians lost in the semi-finals of Swiss Open early in the month.

At the Swiss Open, they lost in the straight sets and will have their eyes on the big revenge on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Kidambi Srikanth was shocked by Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen as the Indian fell in the first round. The eighth seed lost 11-21, 21-15, 12-21 against Nguyen in an hour. While Srikanth was knocked out, women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy advanced to the second round with a 21-14, 21-12 win over Thai pair Benyapa Aimsaard-Nuntakarn Aimsaard in just 30 minutes.

Parupalli Kashyap was completely outclassed by world No.1 Kento Momota of Japan as he beat the Indian 21-13, 22-30 in 42 minutes. This was Momota’s first tournament since he fractured his eye socket in an accident in Malaysia last year that killed his driver.

Fifth seed PV Sindhu eased into the second round with a 21-11, 21-17 win over Malaysian Soniia Cheah in just 39 minutes.Women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Bhat K and Shikha Gautam will be up against English pair of Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith. Saina Nehwal takes on seventh seed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark while men’s doubles pair of Arjun MR And Dhruv Kapila take on Malaysian pair Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi. HS Prannoy is up against Malaysia’s Daren Liew and Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Sikki take on Danish pair Rasmus Espersen-Christine Busch. Ashwini-Satwik will play their mixed doubles first round the Japanese pair of Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo.

Sameer Verma takes on Brazilian Ygor Coelho while Lakshya Sen plays Kantaphon Wangcharoen. Dhruv and Meghana Jakkampudi play their mixed doubles first round against first seed Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti. Meghana plays her women’s doubles with Poorvisha S Ram against Alexandra Boje-Mette Poulsen of Denmark. Sai Praneeth plays French Toma Junior Popov.